Fresh Voices Led J.P. Morgan and Goldman Conference Calls

Today marked a big change for those avid followers of bank earnings calls: Both J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs calls hosted by new CFOs.

For bank CFOs, a group used to operating behind the scenes, earnings calls are typically their one opportunity to star every quarter, taking analysts and media members through the nuts and bolts of the banks’ income statements.

J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs took different tactics to introducing their new CFOs to world.

J.P. Morgan’s newly minted CFO Marianne Lake led the bank’s conference calls with both media and analysts, though CEO Jamie Dimon was ever present and responded to many of the questions.

Dimon started both the media and analyst calls by thanking former CFO Doug Braunstein, who was criticized in the bank’s report today on the London Whale trading scandal, saying even though the Whale occurred, the bank had three years of record profits.

“Doug, thank you for your service, if you’re listening,” Dimon said.

Lake appeared to breeze through the call details and numbers and fielded analyst questions with apparent ease. Dimon ended the call by telling her she did a “great job.”

At Goldman Sachs, new CFO Harvey Schwartz also led the call, but David Viniar, who is handing over the reins, was also on to say goodbye.

It was Viniar’s 55th consecutive conference call, and he concluded the call’s opening remarks by saying Schwartz has the “skills and judgment” to earn the support of investors and analysts.

At one point in the call, Schwartz misspoke only slightly about a question on compensation and then quickly apologized and corrected himself.

He followed the blip with “I got my last bit of mentoring from David there.”

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